[HN Gopher] Trabant: The East German car remains iconic
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Trabant: The East German car remains iconic
Author : Tomte
Score : 105 points
Date : 2021-05-23 08:04 UTC (14 hours ago)
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| Deradon wrote:
| In the mid 90s my parents and me were having a 2-day trip from
| eastern part of Germany to Paris in a "Trabbi". It was loud as
| hell inside the car. And still, I don't know why, I really liked
| this trip and like the look of this car a lot.
| raverbashing wrote:
| Yes iconic. It has the iconic sound of a lawnmower.
|
| Meanwhile the west had BMWs. Tells a lot about how things were.
| slver wrote:
| > Yes iconic. It has the iconic sound of a lawnmower.
|
| And the car body was made of paper.
| FabHK wrote:
| A joke making the rounds in Germany back then:
|
| There's this American car collector who has every fancy car
| imaginable, but then he hears that there is a car in East
| Germany that is so popular that the order backlog is many
| years. So he orders one. At the factory, they're perplexed
| that someone from abroad would order one, and so keen to
| satisfy their first foreign customer that they ship one out
| immediately. Later, a friend asks: "So, did you get your East
| German car yet?" - "No, but they sent me a fully functional
| cardboard model."
| flohofwoe wrote:
| At the time when production started in the 50's and 60's, the
| East German cars weren't all that bad compared to the rest of
| the world (especially if you compare to anything else than West
| Germany, which after all built the best high-end cars in the
| world). The problem was that the East German economy quickly
| went downhill starting in the late 60's, and there was no will,
| and no resources to bring new cars into production.
|
| For instance, East Germany had almost invented the VW Golf
| class of cars if the engineers had their way, but such
| innovations were blocked by the "higher ups":
|
| https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_(Automarke)#Wartburg_...
| raverbashing wrote:
| > had almost invented the VW Golf class of cars if the
| engineers had their way, but such developments were blocked
| by the "higher ups"
|
| Interesting. But yes, that's what you get when you have
| politicians making decisions about products and market
| (doesn't apply only to Eastern countries and doesn't apply
| only to governmental politicians - think office
| politics/people "falling up").
| TazeTSchnitzel wrote:
| > governmental politicians
|
| Does "politician" just mean "person who makes decisions for
| reasons I don't like" to you? Politicians can also make
| good decisions.
| mangamadaiyan wrote:
| I am envious of the fact that you live in a world where
| politicians make good decisions.
| TazeTSchnitzel wrote:
| I can't seriously engage with someone who believes
| politics never results in anything positive.
| mangamadaiyan wrote:
| I didn't mean it that way. I wasn't trying to be
| facetious either. Consider that I was merely making a
| statement about a place that you're probably unfamiliar
| with :)
| hulitu wrote:
| Some examples of positive behavior of politicians will be
| apreciated.
| mangamadaiyan wrote:
| I'm sure there are plenty of examples of good coming out
| of politics, all across the world. The evil politician
| stereotype is neither new nor completely accurate. I'd
| assume that much depends on the system in which the
| politician in question operates. Some systems easily lend
| themselves to abuse and corruption, and others are
| slightly more robust. In a word, it's complicated :)
| dsego wrote:
| Thank god we now have the EU bureaucrats making decisions.
| Because forcing the companies to cheat on, ehm I mean
| "innovate" on emissions is democratic and western. Somehow
| the markets don't care about ecology, which is strange,
| because market knows best.
| slver wrote:
| I really like the sharp lines of old designs. Probably
| terrible for aerodynamics, but they look great.
| aww_dang wrote:
| Some love the sound of 3 cylinder two-strokes. The Saab 93 has
| a cult following. The engine was originally licensed from a
| German manufacturer. I believe Auto-Union, but someone can
| correct me?
|
| https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1966-saab-850-gt-monte-car...
| abraxas wrote:
| In communist Poland we used to call them "Ford Carton"
| chiph wrote:
| The USAF museum in Dayton Ohio has one on display. When I was
| there in 2003 they had it placed next to some portions of the
| Berlin Wall. This example is the 601 S "Delux" which got you two-
| tone paint and a chrome bumper, in addition to the odometer and
| back-up light that the "S" special edition got you.
|
| https://imgur.com/a/WnKqNKe
|
| https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact...
| aww_dang wrote:
| Are these still street legal? I've heard conflicting reports
| about two-stroke cars in the EU.
| varjag wrote:
| There's usually exemption for historic cars (over 30 years
| old).
| Tomte wrote:
| Germany: They've got an "H" license plate (historic -- older
| than 30 years), are exempt from emissions laws and often you
| don't have to pay taxes on them.
|
| Just last week I saw a
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_(marque) on the Autobahn
| and it made me smile.
| guenthert wrote:
| They shouldn't be. Aside the terrible emissions from the
| 2-stroke engine, they're pretty unsafe. I once had the
| misfortune to get a ride in W-Berlin in one (early nineties).
| The windows/interior are so oddly designed, you have a pretty
| poor view. That might not have been much of an issue in the DDR
| with the low traffic density then, but it's unfit for the
| current situation in most European cities or highways.
| tchalla wrote:
| Here's a Benz Victoria from 1894 in Germany with a legal status
|
| https://youtu.be/bQ4vB55z0RE
| flo123456 wrote:
| Apart from the already discussed H license plate Germany also
| has countless laws dealing with and keeping things legal that
| were legal in GDR times.
| augstein wrote:
| I'm from West-Germany and have driven a Trabant myself (only
| twice though). This video, titled "The Trabant Was an Awful Car
| Made By Communists" from Doug De Muro sums it up quite nicely
| imo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No1-4GsQa-g ;-)
|
| The fact that they still sold this dangerous and noisy
| contraption in the late eighties (you even had to wait years to
| get one), when Audi released the V8 (4C) and Mercedes was about
| to end production for the S-Class W126, tells you a lot about how
| broken transportation was in East-Germany.
| hnbad wrote:
| I think it's worth appreciating the resource constraints under
| which the Trabant was developed. The questionable technical
| choices weren't made out of socialist incompetence but because
| certain materials were hard to come by and practically every
| citizen was eligible to request one.
|
| While the Western Allies quickly changed their post-war plans
| to build up Germany as a military base against the Soviet Union
| for the impending Cold War and the US offered Germany loans for
| their surplus resources, the Soviet Union initially sought to
| deindustrialize Germany for reparations to rebuild its own
| infrastructure that had faced massive destruction by Germany
| throughout the war.
|
| Additionally unlike the Western Allies, the Soviet Union had
| only just barely experienced its own industrial revolution and
| was still largely agrarian until it shifted gears to produce
| for war. And while an important strategic partner, East Germany
| spent most of its existence as a puppet state, stuck between
| producing commodities for its own population, producing export
| goods that could only be sold at a massive loss and supporting
| the Soviet side of the Cold War while facing constant
| provocations from NATO and the US.
|
| In fact, the most valuable "export" for East Germany were West
| German spies and "collaborators", whom the West German
| government routinely paid large ransoms for.
|
| EDIT: Deleted the last paragraph speculating about what might
| have happened if East Germany had continued to exist because
| that's probably off-topic and requires a more thorough
| understanding of late East German politics.
|
| EDIT2: To clarify, I'm mostly pointing these things out because
| the video the parent posted is infuriatingly light on details
| while just constantly mocking obvious UX or quality issues. The
| presenter doesn't seem to know much about the car itself and
| instead tries to give a strained Jeremy Clarkson impression.
| There's no historical context given (other than "it's a
| communist car") and it barely even describes any technical
| aspects other than what would be obvious to any layperson.
| Contrast this with this _Forgotten Weapons_ video about a
| horrible mess of a gun that ruined the company that made it:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9bULArrKs4
| Clewza313 wrote:
| "Constant provocations from NATO and the US"? The following
| wiki article goes into great depth on the _insane_ amount of
| time and money the DDR invested in making sure that its
| citizens could not escape:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortifications_of_the_inner_Ge.
| ..
| hnbad wrote:
| Oh, sorry, I meant "unannounced military drills
| occasionally violating Soviet airspace and waters".
|
| I'm not sure what the fact that the DDR was an
| authoritarian police state that routinely incarcerated and
| tortured citizens accused of collaboration, shot anyone
| trying to illegally cross the border into the West, and
| employed ordinary citizens to keep taps on each other under
| constant paranoia of collaboration has to do with this,
| though. There's a reason I put "collaborators" in scare
| quotes. These things are well-known, even outside Germany.
|
| I didn't say the DDR was good. I said it faced extreme
| resource constraints and that it was under constant
| pressure from Moscow, while also trying to provide
| commodity goods to every citizen. "Stupid communists built
| bad cars" isn't a very interesting or informed take,
| though.
| hulitu wrote:
| Well Audi V8 and Mercedes S klasse are not exactly people's
| cars.
| xattt wrote:
| How different is pricing in Germany for an MB, BMW or VAG
| product? Are those vehicles much cheaper in DE or is the
| income "floor" much higher relatively to North America?
| hef19898 wrote:
| Last time I checked, these brands are more expensive in
| Germany than the US. They are even cheaper in other EU
| countries, to the point exporting the papers to have them
| registered in a third EU country is a thing. These re-
| imports are usually a good deal.
| jen20 wrote:
| Having owned BMWs in both Europe and the US, I can
| definitely attest to the much lower cost - both absolute
| and as a proportion of software developer income - in the
| US of an equivalent model (though ten model years apart).
| That said, I believe the US models are made here and not
| in Germany.
| hef19898 wrote:
| If I remember well, the X5 (?) sold in Europe is produced
| in the US as well.
| BrandoElFollito wrote:
| I had the opportunity to tour in a Trabant once in Krakow (though
| https://www.crazyguides.com/cars/ - no affiliation, just happened
| to be their customer).
|
| It is ultimately an interesting car where you can mend quite a
| lot by yourself, which I think could be useful when touring some
| remote places (of which Krakow is of not one - a fantastic city
| BTW)
| rainmaking wrote:
| A local hairdresser owns one and drives it 300m to her studio at
| the same time every morning. Easy to find a parking space with
| and oddly charming looks, but the thing sounds like a rolling tin
| can with a stone in it and smells like death.
| jansan wrote:
| My father worked at Volkswagen when the Berlin wall fell.
| Volkswagen considered a cooperation with Sachsenring (the
| producer of the Trabant cars) and my father's team had the task
| to find ways to keep the production of the Trabant running until
| a line for a new car could be set up at the Factory in Zwickau.
| They held a competition for artists to style the Trabant's body
| so it could become something like a lifestyle car. My father
| asked me about the opinion on the designs and I remember that
| some were quite cute, but not enough to make that outdated car
| attractive for buyers.
|
| Anyway, it was soon decided that the technology of the Trabant
| was already so far behind that nobody wanted to buy the Trabant
| anymore and keeping up the production made no sense economically
| or ecologically. But I can assure you, they tried and
| Volkswagen's top management actually was a little bit idealistic
| about this.
| jakub_g wrote:
| In early 2000s in Poland, we had a Trabant combi in our family,
| from the last 1990-91 batch (with a 4-stroke VW Polo 1.1L
| engine). Apart from funny look, I remember it as a much better
| and more solid car than other cars available at that price range
| at the time! Plus, few of cheap cars back then had a spacious
| combi version. (Other, much popular low-end cars back then being
| trunk-less Fiat 126p, and Fiat Cinquecento/Seicento)
| marcodiego wrote:
| Trabant motor is a 2-stroke engine. Oil is mixed with the fuel on
| the tank and the fuel tank is positioned above the engine so they
| flow through gravity. This means only a single filter for fuel
| and oil is used and no need for fuel or oil pump. A very durable
| configuration. They are also very easy to repair. These features
| made Trabant such a durable car that owners eventually abandoned
| them in working condition instead of selling or scraping.
|
| It could be even more durable if the engine was a 2-stroke valve-
| less design. But I don't know of any car that used such engine.
| endymi0n wrote:
| Disregarding the practical aspects and all nostalgia: All that
| unburnt fuel and oil vapor from the 2 stroke was a major
| ecological and health hazard and I'm glad they're long gone.
|
| Every time a Trabbi Safari passes by me around Checkpoint
| Charlie, the smell makes me almost want to puke instantly.
|
| I can't even imagine by now how East Berlin must have smelled
| 40 years ago and what toll it must have taken on the health of
| residents.
| marcodiego wrote:
| Yeah, durable but certainly pollutant and unhealthy.
| hef19898 wrote:
| Just throw leaded fuel in the mix. I know my classic V8 is
| definitely more smelly than anything modern. And it was a
| rather modern V8, despite double carbs is already almost de-
| doxed.
| foepys wrote:
| Two strokes are still in use. Small scooters use them and
| some competition enduro motorcycles up to 250cc as well.
|
| Nothing that needs to meet emission standards, though.
| mjklin wrote:
| A Texas oil man heard that there were cars in East Germany so
| popular that buyers had to wait years to take delivery of one. He
| immediately sent a check to the Trabi factory.
|
| The directors, sensing a propaganda coup in the making, arranged
| to send him the very next car off the line.
|
| Two weeks later the oil man was in a bar, speaking with some
| friends.
|
| "Ah ordered me one o' them Trabis them folks over there in East
| Germany wait 12 years to get," he drawled.
|
| "And you know what? Them East Germans are so efficient. Wah, just
| last week they sent me over a little plastic model so I can know
| what to expect!"
|
| (Taken from http://www.nickselby.com/2013/08/25/and-now-a-little-
| trabant...)
| ohlookabird wrote:
| That's a somewhat common joke in East Germany as well (at least
| it was in the 80s and 90s). Typically it is a buyer from West
| Germany though.
| PicassoCTs wrote:
| Toilet paper in the eastern block always was 2 layer, cause
| one copy of every shit goes to moscow.
| mjklin wrote:
| Results for international tonsil-removal competition: USA 2
| minutes, France 1 minute, East Germany 10 hours. (You see
| in East Germany you can't open your mouth so they had to go
| in the other way)
| memling wrote:
| As a student of German I was introduced to the Trabi through
| jokes, e.g., "How do you double the value of your Trabi? Fill
| it with gasoline! Why does a Trabi have a rear defroster? To
| keep your hands warm while pushing it!" etc. I'm sure that
| these are retreads from any car model you please, but they were
| novel to me as a high schooler.
| chimen wrote:
| "Longest car in the world at 20m. 2m car, 18m smoke"
| krono wrote:
| They are jokingly referred to here as "Trammelant", Dutch for
| "big trouble" fish in a barrel wordplay. Come to think of it,
| don't believe I've ever heard anyone use their proper name!
|
| A neighbour used to own one as a hobby car. Those things are
| loud!
| jiripospisil wrote:
| My dad used to own one back in the day and has only fond memories
| of it. At the same time, he says it was the most unreliable car
| he has ever owned. And the heating never worked. He later
| replaced it with Wartburg 353.
|
| If you want to see a POV test drive in a Trabant, here's a video:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzEPWttWVlk
| lower wrote:
| > If you want to see a POV test drive in a Trabant, here's a
| video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzEPWttWVlk
|
| One thing to note is that this is a Trabant 1.1 not a 601. The
| 1.1 was produced only from 1990 to 1991 and had a four-stroke
| VW engine (produced under license from VW). So the sound in the
| video is not the one typical two-stroke engine of the standard
| 601. The appearance of the car is very similar to the 601,
| though.
| Dunedan wrote:
| > Volkswagen settled in Zwickau, Chemnitz and Eisenach and
| developed the Golf and Polo models there. Opel has been producing
| cars there since 1992, along with numerous new suppliers that
| call Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt their home.
|
| The author mixed something up there. VW only settled in Zwickau
| and Chemnitz, which were involved in Trabant production. However
| VW neither settled in Eisenach nor was there anything regarding
| the production of Trabant going on in Eisenach. Instead the "VEB
| Automobilwerk Eisenach" produced the "Wartburg" [0], another
| famous car in GDR in Eisenach and after the reunification Opel
| established a factory there [1].
|
| [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_(marque)
|
| [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Eisenach
| [deleted]
| Archelaos wrote:
| To supplement this: Eisenach was the location of one of the
| early car manufacturers of Germany.[1] It was BMW that bought
| the factory in 1928. After WW2 it was nationalized. The factory
| was closed in 1991. The Opel factory was not a direct successor
| of it. However, the availbility of skilled workers from the old
| factory influenced the dicision to establish a new factory
| there.
|
| [1] Here the picture of a "Wartburg" from 1898:
| https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg-Motorwagen#/media/Dat...
| tyingq wrote:
| I lived in Germany when the wall came down. For a while after
| this, it was common to see Trabant debris on the side of the
| autobahn. The Trabant had a very low top speed, and the East
| German drivers weren't aware of the fast-lane etiquette on the
| autobahn, so they would get rear-ended quite often.
|
| _" According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, around
| 34,500 Trabants were registered in Germany at the beginning of
| 2019."_
|
| That's surprising to me, as I recall the TUV vehicle inspection
| requirements were pretty strict. I guess they have some kind of
| exemption for hobbyist/antique vehicles?
| hef19898 wrote:
| Having a classic vehicle in Germany, a 1982 V8 Range Rover, I
| can elaborate on that. There are no exceptions for hobby or
| classic cars. Quite the opposite, in case you want the tax
| exemption and (limited annual millage) insurance benefits, the
| TUV is quite strict before handing out the relevant
| certification (Paragraph 21 if memory serves well). Statistics
| show that these kind of cars have overall less defects during
| examination than others. I guess because enthusiasts take good
| care of their hobby cars, I certainly do. More so than our
| second, now rather redundant, daily driver.
|
| And being easy to work on, Trabis are thankful hobbyist cars.
| tyingq wrote:
| Makes sense for your Range Rover, but Trabants are arguably
| not road-worthy. Bakelite-like brittle plastic body, 20+
| second 0-60 times, no rear seat belts, 26hp smoky 2-stroke,
| etc.
| hef19898 wrote:
| Thing is, classic cars are examined based on the year of
| make requirements. So a Trabant, or any other car from that
| period, has to fulfill the "old" requirements. Seat belts,
| if not part of the original roadworthiness certification,
| are not required. Same goes for emissions. And since
| Trabants were street legal back the day, they still are
| today. I would argue those that are around are even safer
| because of better maintenance and replacement part quality.
| rjsw wrote:
| I had a near miss as a passenger on the autobahn from Bazel to
| Karlsruhe. It is only two lanes, the car I was in was doing
| about 200km/h, a Trabant decided to try to overtake a truck
| with a Porsche rapidly closing on us from behind.
| hef19898 wrote:
| Welcome to the German Autobahn!
| Archelaos wrote:
| Other iconic vehicles from the GDR are the motorbikes from
| Simson, especially the "Schwalbe".[1][2] After the reunification
| there were even fan clubs in western Germany.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simson_(company) [2]
| https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simson_Schwalbe (in German)
| foepys wrote:
| That's mostly because they are exempt from the 45kph limit of
| 50cc engines that you can drive at 15 y/o with an AM license.
| Simsons are allowed to drive 60kph.
| 9front wrote:
| Trivia: Trabants were never painted black to avoid being mistaken
| for a Mercedes.
| INTPenis wrote:
| Any Swedes here should definitely check out the Motornord episode
| with the Trabant[1].
|
| You can hear and see it run by an enthusiast who has repaired it
| so it's worth a watch also if you're curious and can't understand
| the language.
|
| 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXykD-bwets
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| www_harka_com wrote:
| I had one! <3 https://fb.com/10203599871583608
| [deleted]
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| My kid's daily driver: 1961 Ford Galaxie Sunliner
|
| What my kid wants to drive: Trabant
| flohofwoe wrote:
| The photo gallery shows the boring Wartburg 353 with typical East
| German "non-design", but East German engineers could also build
| beautiful cars, at least in the early days:
|
| https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_313
| Retric wrote:
| The 313 is sitting in some kind of uncanny valley for me. It's
| close enough to good looking that the oddities really stand
| out.
| flohofwoe wrote:
| True, I guess that's mainly because it had to share parts
| with the 311 model. Still it's by far the most elegant car
| made in East Germany.
|
| For a really odd looking car, check out the Melkus ;)
|
| It actually looks great here in the photos, but in reality
| some things look very odd (also because it was a bit like a
| Frankenstein car, using parts from regular East German cars):
|
| https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melkus_RS_1000
| tyingq wrote:
| It looks like a Ferrari Dino 206/246 that's been through
| some photoshop warping. And it has 68bhp. Heh.
| felipelemos wrote:
| Something between that and a Lamborghini Miura
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > For a really odd looking car, check out the Melkus
|
| My response: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23071521
| tyingq wrote:
| It looks like a low-effort copy of a Karmann Ghia to me. It's
| even got the tilted logo on the bottom right of the trunk lid:
|
| Karmann Ghia:
| https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e8/6d/68/e86d681f64a00ae25e4b...
|
| Wartburg:
| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Wartburg...
| user_01 wrote:
| worth to mention documentary movie "Trabant at the End of the
| World"
|
| https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4205202/
| Maro wrote:
| I'm Hungarian, born in '81, so I grew up around Trabis,
| Wartburgs, Skodas, Moskvitch, Ladas. My mom's first car was a
| Trabant. At some point in the 80s we moved to W-Germany for a few
| years and we took the Trabant, it was not a good look (we were
| living in Boeblingen, near Stuttgart, location of the Porsche
| HQ).
|
| The magic of social and geographic mobility and the tech boom:
| today, 30 years later, I live in Dubai, where anything below V8
| is boring, and my wife drives a Porsche, but really we should
| stop driving ICEs altogether.
| Tomte wrote:
| > we were living in Boeblingen, near Stuttgart
|
| Grew up in Herrenberg (a few kilometers from Boblingen). When
| neighbors learned that my father was thinking of replacing his
| old Audi someone put a Mercedes calendar on our doorstep.
| Swabians are very particular with their cars.
| CurtHagenlocher wrote:
| My father grew up in Herrenberg (on "Auf'm Bildkappele") and
| has never driven anything but Mercedes.
| Tomte wrote:
| That's funny, I grew up about 100m away. Small world. :-)
| eliaspro wrote:
| Tubingen here... and working in Boblingen (or nowadays
| "for a company located in Boblingen").
| CurtHagenlocher wrote:
| Cool. When you commuted did you take the Ammertalbahn and
| S-Bahn, or did you drive? There was no high school in
| Herrenberg after the war, so my dad took the train to
| Tubingen every day and had to cross between the French
| and American zones of occupation.
| eliaspro wrote:
| Took the Ammertalbahn for a while, but it was extremely
| unreliable due to the known issues, so I switched to
| cycling (2x35km) which crazily turned out to be faster,
| more reliable and benefitial for my health as well.
| rjsw wrote:
| There is a Mercedes research centre in Boblingen.
| CurtHagenlocher wrote:
| While I don't know how manufacturing is distributed today,
| historically the primary Mercedes production facility has
| been in Sindelfingen which is adjacent to Boblingen.
| MichaelMoser123 wrote:
| I grew up in East Germany, but i don't have any kind words to
| say about the Trabant; a small two-stroke engine (all East
| German engines were two stroke engines) that was quite bad to
| the environment (and to the poor guys who were frequently sick
| with some kind of asthma), what's so cool about that? (and the
| Chassis was made of pressed papier-mache, not even plastic; i
| have never seen one burning, but it would have been burning
| like a match)
| berkes wrote:
| I have seen one burning. On a hillside in (then)
| Czechoslovakia. The trabi overheated, then caught flame.
| Drivers got out, but the car was standing there, burning. We
| could not back up, because of a line of cars, trucks buses
| behind us who all were stuck on the very windy road.
|
| Indeed it burned "like a match", with thick black smoke. When
| the breaks burned through it rolled downhill, towards us,
| scary AF. Luckily it did not hit us nor the car in front of
| us, but passed a few meters and ended in a ditch, below the
| road. Where it exploded: almost like in the movies; just more
| black smoke. No-one was hurt.
|
| I was 12 or 13, but I remember the burning trabi like it was
| yesterday. I can almost feel the heat and smell the burning
| plastic, when I think of it.
| xattt wrote:
| The Trabant was made of Duroplast.
|
| (1) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duroplast
| quakeguy wrote:
| I've seen one burning in the early nineties, it was abandoned
| and me and some friends lit it on fire... the paint bubbled
| up in some unhealthy ways on those paper parts. We pissed on
| it to put it out, be we failed. Got out there with our bikes
| pretty quick and later it was put out by the local fire
| brigade. :)
| flohofwoe wrote:
| The body panels are neither plain plastic nor paper-based,
| but more akin to Bakelite:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duroplast
|
| The cardboard thing was more like a joke because (I guess)
| when banging against the panels it sounded like a cardboard
| box :)
| MichaelMoser123 wrote:
| Another popular name for the Trabant was 'Rennpappe' -
| 'racing cardboard'; but you are right, i mixed things up a
| bit.
| 076ae80a-3c97-4 wrote:
| The chap running the Aging Wheels YouTube channel owns one of
| these and has done some great videos about driving and
| maintaining it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npMKIUTa3uI
| amelius wrote:
| I wonder when we'll see retro-designs of these, i.e. like the
| modern Mini and the Bumblebee. One model I'm still missing is the
| 2CV.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_2CV
| knapcio wrote:
| I've seen this project ages ago a it's apparently dead now:
| https://m.facebook.com/NewWarsaw
| bombcar wrote:
| Looks like a Mini Cooper.
| artiszt wrote:
| but then the Mini Cooper truly is a car ..
| flohofwoe wrote:
| There was a "newTrabi" concept making the rounds a little while
| ago, but nothing came of it:
|
| https://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z17483/trabant-nt-concep...
| antattack wrote:
| One unbeatable feature of Trabant was that it cost only around
| $5000 in today's money.
|
| It also seems quite capable:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WRQcJ0QnTU
| maxerickson wrote:
| Wikipedia says there was a 10 year wait list? Seems worth
| mentioning when discussing the purchase price.
| jowdones wrote:
| Romanian here, there were Trabants around here too but I
| always viewed as somewhat exotic. Typical car was built
| locally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_1300
|
| Also had to wait for years to buy one. In fact you had to pay
| it upfront and then maybe in 5 years you'd get it.
| flohofwoe wrote:
| The typical procedure was to order one "just in case",
| because even if you don't need it for yourself you can still
| sell it "used" for a nice profit. My father for instance
| "traded" his new Trabant for a used Volga M21, which was a
| much bigger but also older Soviet car (and later sold this
| Volga to a Russian soldier returning back to the motherland,
| and "upgraded" to a used Shiguli, aka Lada 1500 - which was a
| really fine car considering the "competition" :)
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